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Advances in technology leading to decreasing carbon emissions, Vets4Energy says

Supporters of an energy policy that uses traditional fossil sources but with more advanced technology to cut emissions are teeing up to work with the Trump administration.

One group, Vets4Energy, is at the forefront of a campaign that argues carbon emissions are dropping because of technology and that energy security does not have to be traded for cleaner air.

And political leaders in Congress believe the Obama administration’s signature Clean Power Plan and commitment to the Paris climate agreement will likely be ditched after the Jan. 20 inauguration of Donald Trump.

“Despite America’s increasing demand for energy, and (the U.S.) becoming the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas, the country’s carbon emissions are decreasing which are now at 25-year lows,” retired Army Capt. James McCormick, program director for Vets4Energy told American Security News.

“We are proving that our energy security does not have to be traded for cleaner air,” McCormick said.

McCormick added that his organization, which calls for the promotion of all sources of energy production to better secure America, wants to continue developing ever-cleaner fuels, and harness more renewable sources.

“But unlike what some are trying to say, our energy security does not have to sacrifice our air quality,” McCormick said. “We can have energy security and make the air better.”

Republican leaders in the Senate, who oppose much if not all of the Obama administration's energy policy, including its commitment to the Paris accord and the Clean Power Plan, have signaled what they believe will be the path taken under a Trump presidency.

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee and one of the strongest proponents of the idea that man-made climate change is not happening, issued a statement following Trump’s election.

“My Republican colleagues and I took the message to the international community last year that the American people do not support President Obama’s climate commitments as part of the Paris Agreement, but nobody wanted to believe us,” Inhofe said.

“The message can no longer be ignored: Americans do not support it when their president sidesteps Congress,” he said.

“They also do not support economically damaging mandates that have no measurable impact to climate change,” Inhofe said. “The president’s ‘commitment' has been opposed by the majority of Congress and its legal soundness is questioned by the Supreme Court.”

He said a Republican administration will fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, which will decide the final fate of the Clean Power Plan.

“As I warned (Secretary of State John) Kerry in a letter on Nov. 3, a future administration will have numerous options to forgo President Obama’s political commitments under the Paris Agreement and the fact that it will soon be in force is of no consequence,” Inhofe said.

“President Obama’s climate legacy has been solidified with (November's) election results and will be remembered for being built on hollow commitments,” he said.

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